positively looking to pay it forward and make a difference. it is really something. brynn, thank you. thanks to you for joining us today. follow me on twitter at erica r. hill and tweet the show at "the lead" on cnn and our coverage continues on cnn right now. happening now, breaking news. december 4th, democrats move another step closer to impeaching president trump as the house judiciary committee schedules its first hearing and invites the president to participate or, quote, stop complaining about the inquiry. aid holdup. president trump acknowledged he ordered the hold on military aid to ukraine and tonight we're learning about the timing of the decision that sparked the impeachment probe. buttigieg gains. pete buttigieg now locked in a battle for second place in a new poll on the 2020 democratic presidential race. so what is behind his rising numbers? and kim's trench coat. kim jong-un supervised the test

firing of short-range artillery drawing rebuke from south korea and warning from experts there may be more to his photo on than just flexing his military muscle. i'm wolf blitzer and you're in "the situation room". >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. breaking news. the house judiciary committee has just announced that crucial next step in the impeachment inquiry. the chairman jerry nadler said the first hearing will take place on wednesday, december 4th, that is just one week from tomorrow. nadler also invited president trump to participate in the process or in his words stop complaining. i'll discuss that with congressman jamie raskin of the judiciary and oversight committee and we'll have full coverage of the day's top stories. first to capitol hill. our congressional correspondent phil mattingly is watching the developments. the impeachment inquiry is about to enter a critically important

new phase. will the president participate in this new round of hearings? >> reporter: if past is any precedent, that seems unlikely but that doesn't mean a representative from the president won't come in and testify. look, this is an interesting element because that is a new phase. they're moving into the now nuts and bolts of impeachment starting in the judiciary committee. the first hearing is about precedence and the history of impeachment and have a number of constitutional scholars come in and testify and also invited the president or his counsel. now this was long expected to be the case. based on the a resolution house democrats passed that the president or a representative could not only attend the hearing, they could participate in the hearing. they could ask questions and also give a concluding statement or presentation at the end of the hearing. one thing we know for a fact at this point in time there will likely be multiple hearings as they move through this part of the process. the one question unanswered is will the president or someone from his team participate. in the past they have.

will they this time, based on what we've seen up to this point, the answer would seem like no. but however this is a different phase. as you noted. and there is upside for the white house playing a role in this. keep in mind if the white house declines to participate or help out with this part of the process, jerry nadler has the option based on this is characterized to shut the white house out. so there is incentive to participate but the question remains will they, wolf. >> i understand more deposition transcript have just been released. what are you learning. >> reporter: the last two transcripts, philip reeker and mark sandy a career office of management and budget official were released and it is the latter that everybody is paying attention to. just today the house budget committee released a two-page summary document laying out a detailed timeline of the hold the office of payment and budget put on the ukraine aid. specifically the idea that the hold letter was released on july

25th. what else happened on july 25th? well the phone call between president trump and zelensky. and on july 25th, sometime in the afternoon, two different emails were sent from ukraine officials to the state department inquiring about the state of the aid. it was just a couple of hours later that the hold was placed. now going through the transcripts we're just starting to get a look at the 181-page transcript from mark sandy the career omb official and one thing is made clear, one, the concerns that officials had at omb about the illegality of holding the aid and going against the impoundment control act by holding aid allocated by congress for longer than they were supposed to. that is a concern they had. but also the idea that mark sandy signed off on the initial letter holding the aid but did not sign off on future letters. his portfolio was taken over by a political appointee and that is a concern from lawmakers. one thing democrats who released the summary document today said is there was an egregious abuse

of power by the omb to implement the hold. one of the open questions throughout the course of the process, wolf, how much and who knew about what was going on at the omb and we're getting fleshing out of that that because of the official but those involved from mick mulvaney, russ vote, michael duffy and who signed off on the other hold documents, all declined to come in, declined to comply with subpoenas. so there are still unanswered questions out there. but as we pour through the latest transcript of the deposition we're getting more answers on what was happening inside of the agency and what was happening on the ground as this hold was being implemented and carried out over the course of weeks, wolf. >> and as you correctly point out, mark sandy, this career official from the office of management and budget, he is the only one that agreed to go before the committee and answer questions on -- under oath as part of this deposition.

>> reporter: that is exactly right. and this is something he did not come in and then chose to come in on a saturday morning. and we're told from sources who are familiar with that testimony before we got the transcript that he raised the concerns that several career officials had inside omb about the process taking place and how it was playing out. now republicans made the point he made clear he was not given any detail as to why this hold was taking place. he was not told this had anything to do with investigations or looped in on the president's thinking. but one thing he makes clear in my initial read of the transcript is he was told this order came down specifically from the president to the acting chief of staff and why that matters is much like over the last couple of weeks, witness after witness after witness have testified to the same type of timeline, the same type of actions an the same people involved in the orders. one thing they haven't testified to is what exactly the president was thinking. democrats think that the hearings they've had have shown what he was thinking. republicans have made clear they believe everything they did was aboveboard and nothing has

directly tied the president to this. we'll see that argument continue to play out as the judiciary committee gets its turn at hearings next week, wolf. >> you'll go through the documents, the transcripts, hundreds of pages of transcripts that have just been released from mark sandy from the office of management and budget and philip reeker the secretary of state for european affairs. we'll get back to you. to the white house. the president is weighing in on the late breaking impeachment news and other develops. jim acosta is joining us now. what are you hearing? >> reporter: wolf, we're told a senior administration official said chairman nadler's proposal to allow white house attorneys to participate is under consideration and likely to come up for discussion during the president's trip to florida over the next several days. as for allowing top officials to testify, that is another matter. the president is trying to have it both ways and insisting woe like to see some of the top officials appear before lawmakers but adding that he doesn't want to tie the hands of

future presidents. the message there is coming from the white house, don't bet on it. >> any response to jerry nadler? >> reporter: president trump ignored questions about what is waiting for him after his holiday break. house judiciary committee plan for the impeachment inquiry. while acknowledging in a tweet he stalled military aid to crane as part of the deal to get dirt on joe biden, the president is not ready to allow top officials to testify in front of house democrats tweeting that his former national security adviser john bolton is a patriot and may know that i held back the money from ukraine because it is considered a corrupt country. likewise i would like to have mike pompeo and rick perry and mick mulvaney and many others testify about the phone i ooi impeachment hoax but doesn't want future presidents to be compromised. pompeo refused to be pinned down on whether he would testify. >> the president tweeted a short

while ago that he would encourage you essentially to testify in the impeachment investigation. is that something that you're considering? >> when the time is right, all good things happen. >> reporter: bolton had a has also been dodging the issue said it goes without saying that we are under attack from within. america is distracted, our enemies are not. we need to make u.s. national security a priority. one big reason that they're all skirting the issue is they would be asked about european ambassador gordon sondland testimony that the president's personal attorney rudy giulianis was orchestrated a quid pro quo with the ukrainians. >> his requests were a quid pro quo for arranging a white house visit for president zelensky. mr. giuliani demanded that ukraine make a public statement announcing the investigations of the 2016 election, dnc server, and burisma.

mr. giuliani was expressing the desires of the president of the united states and we knew these investigations were important to the president. >> reporter: a new cnn poll finds public support for removing mr. trump is steady at 5 50% and more than half believe he used his office to gain political advantage and add a key republican who believed the president's boguous conspiracy theory is now changing course. >> i was wrong. the only evidence i have and i think it is overwhelming is that it was russia who tried to hack the dnc computer. >> that is what the consensus is. >> i i've seen no -- yep, i've seen no indication that ukraine tried to do it. >> reporter: the president is trying to find some humor in his foul predicament. >> they've already received subpoenas to appear in adam schiff's basement on thursday. it's true. hundreds of people. it seems the democrats are

accusing me of being too soft on turkey. but bread and butter, i should note that unlike previous witnesses, you and i have actually met. >> reporter: now as for john bolton's tweet, the u.s. national security priorities are become attacked from within a senior official at the white house replied bolton is going to bolton but the white house is not likely to change the posture to give the green light testifying on capitol hill that means more presidential stonewalling in the days to come. wolf. >> jim acosta at the white house. let's discuss the news with jamie raskin, a member of both the judiciary and the oversight committee. thanks so much for joining us. and as you just heard, we literally a few minutes ago got the transcripts of omb official mark sandy and philip regger. you were there when they were

testifying under oath. now the testimony and depositions have been released in the transcript. what stood out to you from their testimony? >> well, mark sandy was a fascinating witness because he blew the whistle in his own way about the budget process because he knew that things were happening in an extremely unusual and indeed unique way. congress had appropriated this money. the president had signed into law the appropriation going to ukraine basically all of the i's have been dotted and the t's crossed and it was held up and he raised the question of whether or not this is a violation of the impalement control act of 1974 adopted in the wake of watergate precisely to crack down on executives deciding to treat money appropriated by congress as their own for their own

political purposes. and that of course is precisely what donald trump did. he decided to use this money as a leverage to put zelensky in a box as he told ambassador sondland. he wanted to put zelensky in a box in order to extract from him the political dirt on joe biden he was looking for and this omb official said this looks very strange essentially and asked questions about the lawfulness of what was taking place. >> we see that. just beginning to go through the transcripts. the deputy associate director for national security mark sandy and the acting assistant secretary for european affairs. do you know why these two individuals were not calling before the house intelligence committee to testify publicly? >> well, i mean, all of the witnesses are stand-up, noble and in some ways heroic citizens

for basically dodging the president's efforts to obstruct their testimony. but what we tried to go over with the witnesses who could speak in the most comprehensive and wholistic ways and these are wi wit -- witnesses who dealt with specific testimony and corroborated the testimony of others and i think mr. reeker spoke very eloquently and passionately about the attack on ambassador yovanovitch which he thought was outrageous. and he thought that the smear campaign full of lies and propaganda against yovanovitch was something that should have been denounced by the state department and not something countenanced by the state department or the president. >> i'm beginning to look through the transcripts. from a personal perspective, it would have been good to hear them publicly saying what they told you guys in private as well. i think the american public would have learned something additionally from their testimony.

as you probably know, the president tweeted earlier today and i'm quoting the president right now, that john bolton is a patriot. he said, he may know that i held back the money from ukraine because it is considered a corrupt country and i wanted to know why nearby european countries weren't putting up money also. so even if the president ordered this, how do you get to his motive? >> well, one thing we do is we try to put it into the context of his whole foreign policy. president trump has never made corruption a priority. he has never taken on any country for being corrupt. on the contrary, his best friends are extremely corrupt like vladimir putin in russia orban in hungry and the crown prince of saudi arabia. these are people where he certainly could have raised corruption if that was something that concerned him. but it never did. and he never used the word "corruption" in the july 5th

telephone call and never raised any episode of alleged corruption other than joe biden. look, everybody knows the truth. he was looking for a dynamite political announcement by zelensky that the bidens were being investigated and that was all for political purposes. this president, if he cared about corruption, he would care about the foreign and domestic emolument clause of the united states constitution this ch prevent him from receiving money from foreign princes and kings and states and yet we know that he has been in dereliction of respect for the foreign emolument clause and been collecting also hundreds of thousands or million dollars from federal departments that spend money at the mar-a-lago hotel and other trump properties in the country. so corruption is very, very low down the list. in fact, this president is crossed over the line on corruption. and so that is not going to work as a functional alibi for him.

>> your committee, judiciary committee, scheduled the first hearing for next wednesday. but a new cnn poll shows that public hearings in the intelligence committee over the past couple of weeks have not shifted americans' opinions on impeachment at all. do you think that the judiciary committee will be more successful from your perspective in getting more americans to support impeaching and eventually removing the president from office? >> the first thing we have to say, wolf, is that the fact hearings were a tremendous success that were conducted by the intelligence committee and oversight and foreign affairs because they got the truth out and they got the remarkable witnesses to come forward to speak honestly under oath about what happened. everybody who is throwing stones at them from the white house are people who refuse to testify and are not under oath and refuse to go under oath. look, when the impeachment hearings began against nixon,

only 19% of people favored impeachment. today 50% of the country favors impeachment of donald trump. and the world is just getting out. people are just assimilating and digesting this basic tidal wave of facts and disclosures coming in about the president's ukraine shakedown and all of the surrounding corruption around it. so people are just learning about it now. and there is a momentum in this process. we're going to be turning, as chairman nadler from the judiciary committee announced earlier today, we're going to be turning to the question of the constitution and the law. we know all of the essential fact-findings coming from the last few weeks but now we're going to look at the question of high crimes and misdemeanors. what did the founders mean when they said treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors and article two of the constitution and what they

meant is betrayal of the national security, that is what treason is about, and betrayal of the government and the public interest, that is what bribery is about and then other high crimes and misdemeanors are other offenses against the character of our government. and i think that there may not be another case in u.s. presidential history of a series of events which came more within the contemplation of the founders and what james madison talked about precisely was selling out the country to foreign powers and that was his principle concern and why he wanted to make sure that impeachment remained an instrument within the constitution for the people and the congress. >> your committee chairman, jerry nadler in this letter released a couple of hours ago to the president, said he could participate in your hearings next wednesday. but i don't know if chairman nadler, if you knew that the president has long been scheduled to be in london next wednesday at the 70th anniversary of nato. there is a summit going on.

people are celebrating nato's 70th anniversary. were you aware that the president was going to be in london next week when the chairman sent him in letter asking him to show up next wednesday before the hearing? >> no, that is the first that i'm hearing of it. i'm cheered to know the president would celebrate anything having to do with nato because he hasn't been a very big champion of it so he might decide to stay back anyway for our hearing on the constitution and impeachment. of course he haven't been a very big champion of the constitution either. he thinks that under article two of the constitution he can do whatever he wants which of course is in complete violation of the spirit and the letter of the constitution. the founders of our country wanted the president to be a salaried employee who accepted a salary and no other emoluments from the government and faithfully executed the laws of people. that is the core job of the president. to be commander-in-chief in times of actual conflict. but then to faithfully execute the laws, not to defy the laws or to violate the laws but to

execute them and the minute that a president decides he is not going to faithfully execute the laws but run off and commit high crimes and misdemeanors against the people, that is the moment in which the impeachment provisions are triggered and this is very much part of our constitutional design. >> congressman jamie raskin of the judiciary committee you'll be busy next week and the weeks to follow. thank you so much for joining us. >> wolf, happy thanksgiving to you. >> happy thanksgiving to you as well. we're going through the transcripts, two depositions that have just been released. our constituents and analysts are here and going through them as well. we're going to have a lot more on the breaking news right after this. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it - with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right.

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and learn how janssen can help you explore cost support options. remission can start with stelara®. we're getting more on the breaking news. just coming into "the situation room." new impeachment transcript that have just been released. our phil mattingly is up on capitol hill and combing through them right now. what else are you learning, phil? >> reporter: i'm mostly focused on the transcript from mark sandy, the career omb official one of the things we haven't had visibility into in terms of what was happening in the office of management and budget when the hold on the security assistance was put in place and part of the reason why is several top political officials have declined to come in and respond to subpoenas but mark sandy a

high-ranking career official at the agency did come in and what he underscores throughout the course of his testimony is the confusion about what was actually going on when this hold was put into place. the agency was informed of the hold in early july. it was talked about among several agencies in mid-july and by july 25th they officially put the hold on the security assistance with sandy signing off. even though he signed off on the hold he couldn't get any answers. at one point he talked about how he asked his boss, the political official michael duffy what the rationale was for it being withheld and the question from the democratic counsel said mr. sandy how many times do you follow up with mr. duffy to ask for rationale on why the security was withheld. he said it was open question over the course of late july pretty much all of august. and so they have no idea or insight into what was happening.

interesting note as well. sandy testified that early in the first or second week of august, several omb officials signed off on a memo asking or recommending to the administration they release the hold and signing it lined up with the national security strategy or u.s. policies and prerogatives to push back against russia and every reason to release the hold. so not just omb and we've heard testimony, people from state and people from the department of defense across the u.s. government saying the whole needed to be released. however the hold was held on. and that caused a lot of consternation inside of the omb amongst career officials because they were concerned if the money did not go out of the door, they might be running afoul of the law and that is one of the other issues that pops up. he's asked by democratic counsel whether or not he's aware of anybody inside of the omb male or female who resigned eefr this issue and he's careful with the issue but he did know of somebody that did resign and that person was frustrated and upset about how this process had

played out. he doesn't say this person resigned because of the hold being put in place, but said this person was one of the individuals who was frustrated about the process that was occurring and had raised concerns on the career level to what the politicals were doing as being problematic. so a number of different elements here but more than anything else providing a picture, the first picture, the first window into what was happening inside of omb, particularly among the career officials who are responsible for this portfolio and the confusion in terms of why and how this all happened and how discombobulated this was as this process plays out, wolf. >> there is a question of the law. the nearly $400 million in military assistance to ukraine was authorized and appropriated by the house and the senate. it was signed into law by the president. now the president can hold that up but he has to give an explanation to congress for doing so. and these career omb officials were worried, where is the explanation. >> they were worried about the

explanation. the president has ever right as you know to put a hold on money that has been allocated. but what the career officials were worried about and this gets into the weeds on budgetary law and the impactment act of 1974 if this money didn't go out by the end of the year, and before september and based on analysis from the department of defense they would run afoul of the law put into place so the president could not withhold money that congressional okayed. congress has the power of the purse. so what officials were concerned about up to thint -- to this point is two fold. they had no idea what was going on even though it lined up with the national security and agency was telling them and they didn't have an explanation until late in the game as to why this was happening. second there was concern in the agency this is illegal. now the office of management and budget has made clear throughout the process they believe everything was legal and

aboveboard and doing this to protect american taxpayers as the review was going through but this is what is happening inside of the omb based on career officials and i would note career officials athat have between them decades of work on this. >> absolutely. i know you'll continue to go through the documents. our analysts and our constituents here in "the situation room" are going through the documents right now as well. we're going to have much more right after this. it also has the highest growth in manufacturing jobs in the us. it's a competition for the talent. employees need more than just a paycheck. you definitely want to take advantage of all the benefits you can get. 2/3 of employees said that the workplace is an important source for personal savings and protection solutions. the workplace should be a source of financial security. keeping your people happy is what keeps your people. that's financial wellness. put your employees on a path to financial wellness with prudential.

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breaking news. lawmakers are just released new transcripts from the closed-door sworn impeachment testimony statements. our experts are here, we've been going through, susan, the documents just released what jumps out at you. >> there are certainly significant information in the deposition. there are a couple of significant things. one is that he's testifying that his understanding and the understanding of omb was this military hold was driven by the president personally and asking questions about the hold and painting a clear picture that as the white house and the chief of staff were putting pressure to have this hold on ukrainian military aid people in the omb were concerned about the legality or concerned this is

breaking the law. sandy raised those concerns and then he was removed as the career official, removed from the approval process and a political figure highly unusual move, a political figure was put in to make those approvals. sandy also testified that his understanding is that one of the lawyers at omb resigned at least in part related to this issue. so there is showing there were deep concerns at omb about the legality and that the white house was pushing for them to do it -- to do it anyway and really does tie a pretty direct picture to both mick mulvaney and president trump's personal involvement in this process and it being driven by the interest in ukraine specifically. >> you've been going through mark sandy's testimony and his deposition and under oath for national security at the office of management and budget. >> he has the portfolio of a big package of ukraine aid and the first thing is it adds details to the timeline, right. so on june 19th trump was on fox

news talking about ukraine. what happened the day before is that the department of defense announced the $250 million in military aid. and what this transcript suggests is that trump saw a news report about the d.o.d. announcement of the $250 million going out of the door and suddenly paying attention piqued his interest. he sent a note saying hey i would like information about the money we're sending to ukraine. on the same day he's talking about ukraine and the bogus server thing on fox news. so what is documented here by sandy is this campaign starts in mid-june and they ask for the hold and then everyone at omb is trying to figure out why the hold happened. by the end of it, they're trying to find reasons, the white house is, to explain the holds that don't really line up with what we know publicly. after the fact reasons. >> kylie, what stood out to you? >> so we are also getting the

transcript here from a senior state department official. the acting assistant secretary for europe. and he also raises questions about what on earth is happening with regard to ukraine policy at large and one of the characters that we've focused a lot on is ambassador sondland and he specifically asked other state department officials why he was involved and it was explained that was an irregular arrangement and not normal -- >> ambassador sondland was the ambassador to the european union and ukraine is not a member of the european union. >> that is right. but it is a reality they -- they had to deal with because ambassador sondland made it known he had to deal with him because the president put him in charge. the other thing he points out is he was told that ambassador sondland had a script for the ukrainians and reeker isn't sure what exactly he meant by a script. that was a script for president zelensky's phone calls with president trump or if that was a

script for some sort of announcement publicly that president zelensky was going to make with regard to committing to investigations. but that word "script" is new and important here. >> we're continuing to go through the transcripts just released. everybody stand by. much more right after this. if you're on medicare, remember, the annual enrollment period is here. the time to choose your medicare coverage... begins october 15th and ends december 7th. so call unitedhealthcare and take advantage of a wide range of plans with a variety of benefits... including an aarp medicare advantage plan from unitedhealthcare. it can combine medicare parts a and b, which is your hospital and doctor coverage... with part d prescription drug coverage, and more,

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at the office of management budget and phil reeker from european affairs. sean turner, you have been going through the documents as well and what jumps out at you? >> well, wolf, i found this revelation about ambassador sondland having a script particularly interesting. we know based on manu reporting that it was july 25th, right after the phone call with president zelensky that president trump made the decision to officially withhold the military aid. now that tells us a couple of things. one we know from the transcript of the phone call that in that call, that president zelensky did not officially announce in a very kind of open and direct term that he was going to open an investigation into joe biden. my instinct here is that the president came out of that call not completely reassured that he was going to get what he wanted. so he made the decision at that point to go ahead and officially withhold that aid. we also know from the call that president zelensky was desperate for attention and for the need

for the president to talk about the engagement and the strength of the relationship between our two countries and that is when the president made his decision to officially double down on this issue of getting the president of ukraine to open this investigation. he just wasn't reassured and so he made the decision to go ahead and make this a big issue. >> what jumps out at me, susan, was these officials at the office of management and budget that the u.s. was suspending the aid for the time being and given no reason at all and there was deep concern it is a potential violation of the law. >> exactly. there were concerns about the irregularity of process and that the white house is claiming there was ordinary motivation and the first justification is mart it was a review of all foreign aid. what this deposition makes clear is that is a lie. this is a specific interest just in ukraine and that is what the president was focused on and it does knock down the core talking points and speaking of talking

points that get knocked down if we look at phil reeker's testimony, he is making really clear they all understood that the burisma investigation was tant amount to the bidens and rudy giuliani was on television talking about the bidens and asked why they didn't mention the term bidens and he said it was one of those things, it was always out there because of course giuliani was talking about h-- about it and the pres was writing about it all of the time. that is him saying we knew what was going on. giuliani was seeking investigation news the bidens and to the extent that kurt volker or gordon sondland was suggesting that they somehow didn't make that connection, that makes this testimony -- this testimony makes that difficult to believe. >> it is interesting, giuliani sort of hovers all of this. >> he hovers over all of this. people are trying to figure out the irregular channel. one thing that the sandy testimony gets at is like, mulvaney went on tv and said we held up the aid because they

didn't pursue the investigation. he publicly said that. so it is sort of strange that the democrats in the house have to go document with great detail what he has already admitted to. but this testimony by mark sandy goes a long way in doing that. >> stand by. more on the breaking news coming up. also kim jong-un is staging a show of force near the contentious border with south korea. is the north korean dictator sending a message to president trump? wayfair's biggest black friday blowout ever

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tonight, experts say kim jong-un could be sending a rather ominous message to president trump with a new round of military drills. brian todd is on the story. what are you learning? >> by every indication, he's dproeing more frustrated by the day over the stalled nuclear weapons talks and frustration on the r part of the dictator often translates to aggressive moves. kim has just pulled off another provocative move and mixed in bizarre imagery in the process. from north korea's young supreme commander, a show of force.

in a trench coat, supervises the firing of artillery from an island. it draws a protest from seoul for violating an agreement agreement. they believe this is more than muscle flexing from the dictator. it could be a reflection of the growing pressure he's under to stand up to the u.s. >> because of his failure to get concessions and sanctions relief, he is under extreme internal pressure and so he must demonstrate his military strength and revolve to his own military and to his own elite. >> north korea's state run news agency says the military unit which conducted this drill was quote brimming with joy and ecstasy over receiving the leader. a volleyball exhibition was staged. an all female military band performed and in one of several class photos, kim is in the middle of dozens of female soldiers, many of whom are are crying. >> we've seen many pictures like

this. women crying, men crying. koreans only get ahead in the north byty to kim jong-un. >> he's almost this mythical, ub touchable kind of god like leader. that's why you want to see this hysteria around him when people have the opportunity to see and meet him. >> analygealysts say the photos part of smaller scale provocations from north korea which include several short range missile tests and hostile and threatening statements directed at the u.s. reflecting a much larger frustration reflected by kim jong-un. his regime has given president trump -- to make more progress on a nuclear weapons deal. experts say if that doesn't happen, north korea could go back to testing nuclear warheads and long range missiles! if this goes south and we blow

past this self-imposed deadline, we have to assume we're facing a more capable, more angry and dangerous north korea than we were look iing at two years ago. >> and analysts believe another provocation from north korea to tweak the u.s. and south korea is imminent. in the next few days they say the north korean military is going to begin its so-called winter training cycle. more than a million troops conducting a massive series of drills that will last for months. the u.s. and south korea meanwhile have been scale back their joint military exercises to appease north korea and get back to the negotiating table, but experts say kim jong-un is not b about to scale back his military drills. wolf. >> very significant indeed. thank you. coming up, the house judiciary committee sets a dedate for a crucial new step in the impee impeachment inquiry. will the president participate in the hearings? >> in.

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xfinity customer service simple, easy, awesome. not my thing. . happening now, breaking news. new transcripts released. impeachment investigators have just put out the final closed door depositions of key offic l

officials from the state department of the budget office. what did they reveal about the freezing of u.s. military aid to ukraine? f house democrats pass the impeachment torch to the judiciary committee which announced they'll hold its first hearing next week. stop complaining. the chairman signs a letter to president trump inviting h toim take part in the hearing and he says if mr. trump chooses not to, he should stop complaining about the process. and fire and ice. a wildfire threatens thousands of homes in southern california while e severe winter like weather threatens holiday travel plans for millions of americans. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> this is cnn praek ibreaking . >> we're following multiple breaking stories including house democrats just releasing transcripts of impeachment inquiry testimony b